ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (Scripps News Detroit) — A judge has ordered two men accused of murdering a Michigan man after posing as utility workers to stand trial.
Now, 37-year-old Carlos Hernandez and 39-year-old Joshua Zuazo, both from Dearborn, are charged with murder and unlawful imprisonment after allegedly pretending to be DTE utility workers looking for gas leaks in a planned robbery attempt. Judge Laura Polizzi bound over both defendants after a preliminary hearing on Dec. 17.
Carlos Hernandez and Joshua Zuazo sit with their attorneys during a hearing on Dec. 17, 2024. (Court TV via Scripps News Detroit)
Linda Murray, Hussein’s wife, was the first to take the stand in the case. Linda testified that the two defendants came to their door on Oct. 10 and said they were DTE employees checking for a gas leak, and said they’d return the next day. She said they returned on Oct. 11 and eventually came into the house. Her husband would show them where the basement was, Linda said.
According to Linda, Hussein led Zuazo and Hernandez down the stairs and she said they were downstairs for about 10 to 15 minutes before both men came back upstairs.
“Mr. Hernandez asked me, ‘where is the safe?’ and I said, ‘we don’t have one.’ He said, ‘where is the jewelry?’ and I said ‘at the bank at the safety deposit box,'” Linda testified. “I started asking, ‘Where is my husband, where is my husband?’ I didn’t get a response. when Mr. Zuazo came upstairs, I saw blood on his vest. I started screaming and Mr. Hernandez hit me in the face,” she said.
She said he covered her mouth, and they eventually sat at the kitchen table. She testified that Hernandez took her watch off, took her cell phone and her car keys, went through her purse and took the cash.
She said after that, it was a little foggy, but Hernandez taped up her legs and wrists with black duct tape. While Zuazo was upstairs in the master bedroom, she heard drawers hitting the floor.
Other testimony in the first part of the hearing came from a deputy, a forensic investigator and a medical examiner. Shauna Bryan, the deputy chief medical examiner in Oakland County, testified that Hussein’s body had not been touched at the scene.
“He had duct tape around his face, covering his mouth. He had duct tape around his hands and feet. Also zip ties around his hands and paper bags covering his hands. He was fully clothed,” Bryan testified.
She said there was blood on him, and when she looked at evidence of injury, she found blunt force injuries to his head — bruising to the face, cuts to the jaw and scalp, and a fractured jaw.
The final witness to testify before lunch was Danielle Diaz, Hernandez’s mother-in-law.
